Twitter Permanently Bans Feminist For Writing That ‘Men Aren’t Women’
Twitter Permanently Bans Feminist For Writing That ‘Men
Aren’t Women’
Months after Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey said his platform
didn’t take sides, his platform is not only taking sides but becoming more
progressive and Orwellian than ever.
By Nicole Russell NOVEMBER 25, 2018
Despite its CEO telling Congress the contrary a few
months ago, Twitter has amped up its pattern of politically one-sided
application of its terms of service.
Last week, the social media giant permanently banned
Meghan Murphy, a writer based in British Columbia, for critiquing transgender
ideology online. The platform repeatedly suspended her account for this then
ultimately banned her last week, saying such behavior “violated [its] rules
against hateful conduct.” Here’s a sampling of tweets Twitter required Murphy
to delete as “objectionable” before allowing her access back to her account:
At Feminist Current, Murphy writes about her ban:
What is insane to me, though, is that while Twitter
knowingly permits graphic pornography and death threats on the platform (I have
reported countless violent threats, the vast majority of which have gone
unaddressed), they won’t allow me to state very basic facts, such as ‘men
aren’t women.’ This is hardly an abhorrent thing to say, nor should it be
considered ‘hateful’ to ask questions about the notion that people can change
sex, or ask for explanations about transgender ideology. These are now, like it
or not, public debates — debates that are impacting people’s lives, as
legislation and policy are being imposed based on gender identity ideology…
On Twitter, Murphy regularly engaged in debates about
sex, gender, and women’s studies. In fact, she holds a master’s degree in the
field from Simon Fraser University. In other words: She isn’t stupid or a
troll. She’s an educated, opinionated woman, seeking to use her Twitter
platform to develop her understanding of the topics and to engage others in
debate.
“In August, I was locked out of my Twitter account for
the first time,” Murphy writes, explaining the timeline. “I was told that I had
‘violated [Twitter’s] rules against hateful conduct’ and that I had to delete
four tweets in order to gain access to my account again. In this case, the
tweets in question named Lisa Kreut, a trans-identified male.”
Her tweets called out Kreut for trying to boycott and
defund Vancouver Rape Relief. Twitter didn’t care what the feud was about or
that it was legitimate and fact-based. They only cared about the fact that
Kreut was transgender and decided to define disputes about transgenderism as
“hate speech.”
Twitter also recently banned “deadnaming”—the practice of
referring to a trans person by his or her legal name, or birth name. This also
likely played a role in Murphy’s suspensions and ultimate ban.
Corinna “Stop Breaking the Web” Cohn
@corinna_cohn
· Nov 24, 2018
Twitter revised
its terms of service to ban “deadnaming”. I am trans and this is a thread on
what “deadnaming” is.
Corinna “Stop Breaking the Web” Cohn
@corinna_cohn
On its face, “deadnaming” is merely mentioning the
christened name of a person as given by their parents if that person has
subsequently changed their name as part of declaring a different gender
identity.
6:20 AM - Nov 24, 2018
Murphy continues in the article:
I deleted the tweets in question, then publicly
complained on Twitter, saying, ‘Hi @Twitter, I’m a journalist. Am I no longer
permitted to report facts on your platform?’ I was promptly locked out of my
account again, told I had to delete the tweet in question, and suspended for 12
hours. I appealed the suspension, as it seemed clear to me that my tweets were
not ‘hateful,’ but simply stated the truth, but received no response from
Twitter.
Murphy said her account was locked again on November 15.
She was told she must delete tweets that read: “Women aren’t men,” and “How are
transwomen not men? What is the difference between a man and a transwoman?”
Murphy deleted the tweets to regain access to her account. However, at this
point, she was angry and tweeted:
“This is f—— bull—, @twitter. I’m not allowed to say that
men aren’t women or ask questions about the notion of transgenderism at all
anymore? That a multi-billion dollar company is censoring basic facts and
silencing people who ask questions about this dogma is insane.”
This tweet went viral, garnering at least 20,000 likes.
ThenTwitter locked her account again and demanded she conform—I mean, delete
it. Following these suspensions, Murphy was then permanently banned. Her fans
were disappointed, to say the least.
Jonathan Kay
@jonkay
· Nov 24, 2018
the move goes
beyond "misgendering." many users, including @MeghanEMurphy, are now
routinely getting suspended 4 arguing generally against radical activists. this
is the 1st time I've ever seen the actual administration of @twitter openly
enlist on one side of an ideological cult
Jonathan Kay
@jonkay
I have now learned that @MeghanEMurphy has had her
account suspended again in the last few hours. @Twitter, this is absolutely
insane: she is one of Canada's best known feminists, & one of the few
voices fighting back against the insanity that's gripped Vancouver gender
politics
4:05 AM - Nov 24, 2018
It appears Murphy was banned solely due to repeatedly
pointing out that men cannot be transformed into women simply because they want
to call themselves women. This is a fact at best, and Murphy’s opinion at
worst. Murphy refused to bend to the progressive view that the transgender
issue is now nearly as sacrosanct as abortion. She was not banned for hateful
conduct or speech but for failing to fall in line with the progressive agenda
Twitter embraces.
Of course, Twitter is a private company and can do
whatever it likes. But they have billed themselves as an open platform, one
that welcomes debate, ideas, and sharing. In an April article about how Twitter
turned toxic, Fast Company reported that Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s first
general counsel, used to say, “Let the tweets flow.” Yet, Murphy writes, the
platform has so persistently done the opposite in its treatment of her and
other trans-critical feminists that she has started to think about the
political right’s positions and be willing to dialogue with them:
I no longer believe leftist positions are necessarily most
right or most ethical. I no longer believe everyone on the right is wrong about
everything. I do not believe all those on the right necessarily have ill
intentions, and suspect that many, like those on the left, believe they are
working towards a better world.
After people started to get crude, abusive, and angry on
the platform, in December 2015 Twitter introduced its policy on “Hateful
Conduct and Abuse.” It was vague and overbroad. It has also been used as a
political cudgel while allowing people to post actually hateful, threatening,
and outright evil content. Even Amnesty International voiced real disgust with
Twitter’s lack of policing actually awful tweets: “Twitter’s inconsistency and
inaction on its own rules not only creates a level of mistrust and lack of
confidence in the company’s reporting process, it also sends the message that
Twitter does not take violence and abuse against women seriously – a failure
which is likely to deter women from reporting in the future.”
Yet instead of clamping down on things like pornography,
unwanted sexual advances, threats, and crude imagery, Twitter started
suppressing accounts of people who didn’t embrace its preferred version of
progressive ideology. In August, Dorsey admitted to CNN that social media in general
has a “left-leaning” bias. A month later he told Congress that “political
ideology” didn’t drive the company’s policies. Yet in an interview just days
later, Dorsey said he was aware that in his company conservative employees
“don’t feel safe to express their opinion.”
While Murphy is outspoken, her tweets were far from
hateful. It’s not just disappointing to see Twitter ban the social media
account of a woman who was simply calling a spade a spade, but a clear example
of Twitter saying one thing and effectively doing another. Instead of the
“Thought Police” and “Big Brother,” now we have Jack Dorsey and Twitter.
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